Morning summary

Andrew Sparrow

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Jamie Grierson.

Here’s where things stand this morning.

Sajid Javid, the housing secretary, is being touted as the favourite to replace Amber Rudd as home secretary. Theresa May is due to appoint someone later today. Ladbrokes have him as the clear favourite. Bookies’ odds can be hopelessly unreliable on matters like this (where little or no money has been bet, they basically make them up), but ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, thinks this tip is a sound one.

Robert Peston (@Peston)

If @sajidjavid isn’t new home secretary, it would be pretty extraordinary. Though he may fear that as chalices go, it’s pretty toxic

Chris Grayling, the transport secretary (and an outside tip for next home secretary), told the Today programme a few minutes ago that he had “no idea” who would get the job.

Labour has said that Rudd’s resignation means Theresa May must now face questions about her role in the Windrush affair. Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, made this argument in an interview on the Today programme this morning. (See 7.14am.) She said:

All roads lead back to Theresa May and her tenure as home secretary. Many of the elements of this hostile environment originated under Theresa May and, most important of all, it was in 2014 that she passed legislation which removed the protection from deportation which up until then had applied to Commonwealth citizens.

Labour wants May to make a statement in the Commons this afternoon. That request seems doomed to failure - there is no obligation on prime ministers to make statements when ministers resign, and Chris Grayling responded to this demand by saying Labour could question May at PMQs on Wednesday - but the demand highlights how May is now becoming the target. When Nick Robinson repeatedly put it to Grayling on the Today programme this morning that, as a former home secretary, May must have known that what Rudd said on Wednesday to the Commons home affairs committee about the Home Office not having deportation targets was untrue, Grayling struggled to give a convincing denial. (See 8.27am.) This is from the barrister and legal blogger Matthew Scott.

Matthew Scott (@Barristerblog)

.@bbcnickrobinson asks Grayling three times whether PM would have known that Amber Rudd's assertion that there were no deportation targets was false. Grayling flannels & evades. #BBCR4today

Damian Hinds, the education secretary, has explicitly talked up the prospect of Rudd being able to return to government. (See 7.47am) It sounded as if his words were sanctioned by Downing Street, amplifying the hint that Theresa May give in her letter to Rudd last night about the possibility of Rudd staging a ministerial comeback in the future. These messages may be intended to minimise the chances of Rudd joining the pro-European Brexit rebels.

Abbott has rejected claims that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party can be blamed in any way for the “hostile environment” policies that have made life difficult for some Windrush generation migrants. Ministers have repeatedly argued that it was the last Labour government that started to tighten rules requiring people to show they are in the UK lawfully. When this was put to Abbott in her Today interview, she replied:

The Labour party is under new management now. We are under new management. We take issues about human rights and fair rules and reasonable management of migration very seriously.

The current prime minister has not been home secretary for an extensive period, she would not know exactly what is happening in the Home Office today.

But she would have known about targets for deportation?

You’re talking about operational targets on the ground in individual teams, ministers don’t see what’s happening in every corner of their department all of the time, so I can’t judge the situation two or three years ago.

Clearly, she felt, given what she said at the time, given what’s come out since, the letter that was leaked on Friday, work that’s come out over the weekend to look at what else is happening around these targets, she’s come to the view that she should have known more, that she didn’t and she’s got to take responsibility for that. I’m sorry that she’s gone but this is a decision of somebody who acted in good faith, found she got it wrong and took a decision to step down.

Chris Grayling, former justice secretary, is speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

What does “inadvertently misled” mean?

She made a mistake. She was not fully aware of the detail or the way on the ground operationally the regime operated to remove illegal immigrants from the country, there are local operational targets to do so … it’s really important to stress this is illegal immigration.

Damian Hinds, the education secretary, has told the Today programme that he understands why Amber Rudd decided to step down but hopes she will return to the cabinet in the future.

Is he expecting the call up?

The prime minister will be making the decision on how to move forward and I look forward to working with the new home secretary on all the really important things we are working with the Home Office on.

One of the favourites tipped to succeed Amber Rudd as home secretary is Sajid Javid.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the current communities secretary, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan in the Sixties, said that upon learning about the treatment of the post-war Windrush migrants:

I thought that could be my mum ... my dad ... my uncle ... it could be me.

The interview could emerge as well-timed, particularly considering Rudd’s belief, expressed before she stepped down, that the Home Office had “lost sight of the individual”.

New Home Secretary should not be someone that continues Theresa May's & Amber Rudd's legacy of institutionalised bigotry & cruelty, rather someone who understands that humanity should be at the heart of our immigration policy #r4today#VoteLabourpic.twitter.com/i2YwUYQdFk

Green avoids answering a question about whether Rudd’s replacement should be another remainer. The PM needs to appoint someone who is an “effective home secretary”, he says, and that will be her main concern.